If you read the spin coming from the Capitol Resource Institute (er the Ab1266 Referendum) – you would believe that they are getting screwed by the California Secretary of State.

There is a problem – there is nothing in State Law that mandates a complete count of signatures.

This has not stopped the AB1266 Referendum Team from calling volunteers and donors in a specific effort to cover for their failure and bungling of the referendum. (I’ve been pinged by a few)

In particular, one bit of specific intel suggests that Karen England herself is calling people specifically telling them not to donate to any sort of effort to file an initiative against AB1266 (which would be a backup if the referendum failed). They need money for lawsuits don’t you know.

Please note that the Capitol Resource Institute failed to qualify a referendum against SB777 or SB48 – in both cases, they did not qualify to file an electronic report, so there is no accounting for where the money went.

There is a paper trail related to their Prop 8 effort – an effort that appears to have been to benefit the CRI and no one else as evidenced by the CRI’s refusal to participate with the other players in Prop 8 and their campaign finance report that indicated that nearly 60% of the money raised paid salaries of CRI employees and expenses of CRI.

The AB1266 people are claiming Karen England was not involved. This is false based on the intel we have received.

The AB1266 people are claiming that the CRI was not involved, yet the AB1266 effort sublet space in the same office as CRI and the CRI’s President, Tim Lefever was on the steering committee for the referendum. Gina Gleason, the proponent is a long-time ally of Karen England.

Whether or not CRI gets any of the money from this AB1266 effort does not remove their fingerprints. (I’d also love to open the books to prove that there was no transfer of money when this is all done)

Based on what I know, it looks like the bottom line is that the AB1266 Referendum is running a full-scale blitz to save face and to kill any effort to try and create a back-up initiative to be present if and when the AB1266 Referendum fails.

They appear to believe that face-saving lawsuits are more important than our children.

In this case – the LGBT community has nothing to fear. Karen England is doing her best to make sure nothing gets on the ballot unless it is what she controls.

We in the CRA are familiar with this – She and Tim Lefever sued CRA twice. They sued CRA before and after her attempted coup in April of 2011. Once they failed on all accounts – they participated in starting a rival group in an effort to dilute the influence of CRA with Mike Spence as it’s leader. (Spence was also on the steering committee for the referendum.)

She has had a pattern of trying to take over organizations, then trying to destroy them when she fails to take them over. (If you can’t control it, destroy it)

All that being said, the AB1266 Referendum effort appears to have ignored offers to help from the CRA as well, despite what several of their leaders did to CRA in the past…

Perhaps the CRA is tired of backroom deals and politicians thinking they have some sort of ownership of their offices. Like, Buck McKeon – who is the embattled incumbent and apparently has pre-arranged a handoff of his congressional seat to Tony Strickland.

Strickland ran unsuccessfully for CA-26 in 2012 – now he is running for CA-25 in 2014.

Tony Strickland will be a vote for John Boehner (just like Doug Ose would be in CA-07).

So – the Santa Clarita Valley Republican Assembly and the Antelope Valley Republican Assembly decided to “Welcome” Tony Strickland in to the Congressional District 25 Race:

Resolution of the Antelope Valley Republican Assembly

WHEREAS; California’s 25th congressional seat is a safe Republican seat and deserves to be represented by a conservative Republican; and

WHEREAS; moderate former state Senator Tony Strickland has announced his intention to run in the 25th congressional district even though he does not live in the district after losing in his own 26th congressional district in the last election; and

WHEREAS; conservative state Senator Steve Knight has been a longtime member of the Antelope Valley Republican Assembly; and

WHEREAS; if elected, Steve Knight will be the only person from the Antelope Valley ever to serve in Congress; and

WHEREAS; Steve Knight earned a 100% voting record from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer’s Association; and

WHEREAS; Steve Knight has consistently fought for second amendment rights and the sanctity of life; and

WHEREAS; Steve Knight continues to stand for the same conservative values as he promised us he would in his first campaign as he does today;

THEREFORE; be it resolved that the Antelope Valley Republican Assembly opposes Tony Strickland running for the 25th congressional district and will support state Senator Steve Knight with our delegates to the California Republican Assembly endorsing convention if Congressman Howard P. “Buck” McKeon decides to retire in 2014.